The Crimson Spiral
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: How long have I been here? Forever. I can't seem to remember much else. I've been fighting for so long now, always fighting, always killing with out a thought...leading and endless path that spirals down into death. Who am I? Where am I? What am I? I know only this. I am not some piece of data; not some fractured bit of code. I am real. I am here. I EXIST! NarutoxHarem. Crossover.


**A/N: I'm back again! I've been on an updating spree as of late, and finally had the time between work and classes to accept a challenge! My first Narutox . hack/SIGN crossover! Not gonna lie, it took quite some time for me to figure out how to go about such a crossover; it wasn't by any means easy, meshing two different universes in one cohesive story. And with that, I proudly present to you. with my latest work..**

**...The Crimson Spiral!**

_"I am real! Not just some random bit of code and data in a game! I EXIST!"_

_~The Crimson Spiral._

**Spiral and Death**

_Welcome to the World._

These are the words-the message-that greets most-many-players when they log into the "The World" the massively multi-player online role playing game for the first time. Seen through their micro monocle display-or M2D for short-armed with their controllers, they are able to see and do things here most would never dream up. Countless jobs, quests, characters; it is here, in this virtual fantasy world, that the masses numbers live out their dreams, enlightened, secret, or otherwise.

All save one.

The Crimson Spiral.

Sheathed in scarlet, his name comes not from the autum-colored armour, nor his blood red eyes; not even his unique class, shinobi. Rather, his title comes from the trail of bodies he leaves in his wake. Some call him a phantasm; others a bug character. Still others a rogue AI, indicative of a unique one-time class quest required to unlock the Shinobi job. He associates with a select few, does relatively little outside of the arena, speaks even less. A player like that, who doesn't even value leveling up, yet who tops the charts as one of the strongest players at lv. 135...truly an enigma. His actual name is Uzumaki Naruto, though whether that be his true name or no, remains to be seen.

Regardless of this idenity or his origins, his name or title, there is one truth the denizens of the world do not yet know of this Spiral. An ugly, hideous truth, that few know, and even fewer dare share.

He has, never once, logged out of the World.

Some would call this folly; no one can play video games 24/7. The human body needs to eat and sleep. Rest and recuuperation. To play "The World" continuous, and nonstop, without pausing for even these most basic necessities, would be seen as tantamount to committing suicide. One's body would give out and collapse from exhaustion. If one were to ask the 'Spiral' why he never logged out, they would simply be met with a blank stare; that or the business end of a kunai.

Unfortunately, one such individual had taken it upon themselves to avail the Spiral of his secret.

"Hey!" They shouted at his back even now, calling out to him even as he ascended the stairs leading the arena counter. "Wait! Naruto-san! Please wait!"

The blond bit back a growl. Troublesome woman! Why did he have to run into her _here,_ of all places?

_"What do you want?"_

A curtain of dark tresses cut across the field of his vision as he swung to face his pursuer. He immediately recognized her as a tribal grappler; although beyond that, he knew next to nothing of her. She wasn't much to look at beyond that for _him;_ wrapped as she was in that tight-fighting kimono, her character would've made most men drool. Lavender eyes framed within a heartshaped face, skin the color of alabaster, with a body no female had any business having.

An errant glance at her name confirmed his suspicions; she was indeed the same girl who'd been hounding him for the last month. _Hinata._ Faced with his undivided attention, the tribal grappler was suddenly fascinated with the floor, chewing nervously her lower lip whilst she tented her fingers.

The shinobi sweatdropped.

"Oi oi...I asked you a question?"

"Well...um...I'd wanted to ask you if you'd considered what I said earlier...

Naruto blinked.

"Considered?"

"About Moon Tree."

_'For the love of-_

"If you're asking me to join your guild, you can forget it." He raised his armored arms in a shrug. "I'm already part of Kestrel, ya know. You wanna get PK'ed or something?" He had the smallest satisfaction of watching her cringe; but after a moment the grappler gathered herself and, to his dismay, continued speaking.

"Y-You wouldn't really PK me, would you?"

Naruto thought about it for a long moment, shook his head, Her level was too low; no, he wouldn't PK her. He took no joy in killing weak opponents. The tribal grappler heaved a small sigh of relief, and Naruto realized too late; he'd just forfeited his one chance to drive her away. She stepped closer to him, lavender eyes peering into his earnestly. Despite himself, Naruto stepped backwards. Tch! What was it with this girl! Her cheery, indefatigable enthusiasm was damn near impossible to shake!

"..."

"Nani?"

"I said I won't PK ya!" Naruto fumed, his fingers loosening from the cold hilt of his kunai.

"See?" She smiled tentatively, her confidence regained. "You're not like the other PK'ers." she pressed on. "If you were anything like them you'd have PK'ed me without a second thought. Come to think of it, I've seen you stop to heal other players before, too. You've even prevented others from being PK'ed sometimes!"

Inwardly, Naruto cringed. _Shit._ She'd seen that? What was she, a stalker or something? It was just one time! He'd just been passing through an area, that was all! He'd let that steam gunner with the weird arm take it from there and that had been the end of that! That didn't make him a nice person! Not by any means! He had a reputation as a badass to keep! Pushing a gauntleted hand through his battered blond locks, he fixed her with a scathing glare. If looks could kill...

"Hinata, right?"

"Hai?"

"You been stalking me or something?"

"Stalking you?" The grappler tilted her head to one side, blinking at him with her doe-like eyes. "Now, why would I do something like that, Mr. Crimson Spiral?"

Naruto's left eye twitched.

"You're laying it on kinda thick there, missy...

"I'm not trying to, really!"

"For the last time, no!" He barked. "I don't want to join Moon Tree!"

"Then...here!"

Without another word, she handed him her member address. Naruto scowled, the expression pinching his whiskered cheeks. He flung a gaze an errant gaze at the grappler, alarmed to find she was already retreating to the chaos gate with the obvious intent of leaving him behind.

"Oi!" he shouted at her back. "Why did you give me this?!"

"Because I'm going to change your mind!" She turned to face him, shouting to make herself heard. "I'll prove to you Moon Tree is the better guild!"

"I don't want this!" Naruto argued; he really didn't! "Take it back!" But she'd already turned away from him once more, striding toward the gate with renwed purpose. "Oi! Are you even listening to me?!"

"Isn't it hard to think of everyone you meet as an enemy, Naruto-san?" Hinata tossed the question over her shoulder; to the Spiral it was like a smack in the face. Did he consider everyone his enemy? No, not quite. He held no anger or resentment to anyone in the World, he simply shunned their company out of habit more than anything else.

"Oi-

But she was already gone from Lumina Cloth, vanishing in a swirl of cerulean light.

Naruto stared after her for a moment, shaking his head. A shortmail pinged inside his head.

_Feel free to invite me anytime! You shouldn't let the opinion of others dictate your actions :D_

"You're only level ten!" Naruto barked back, put on the defensive by her earnest eagerness. "Why would I invite you?! And me? Manipulated?!"

Naruto scoffed at the notion; his reasons were his own. No one was manipulating him. Not by any means. He fought in the arena purely for the sport of it. For the pleasure of cutting down an opponent. There was just one small problem with that logic, however. He couldn't remember anything else. Whenever he thought about it, whenever the desire to fight began to lessen, the voice in his head would speak to him; cruel and crass and cold, ushering him onto more bloodshed, more PK'ing. He didn't take any particular delight or pleasure in ganking helpless players, he simply did it because he could. But fighting strong opponents...that, well, that was something-one of the few things-he _did_ enjoy.

The same could be said of his tenure in Kestrel. He'd originally joined the guild out of sheer curiousity; supposedly, many strong players gathered here. There was only one problem. He was stronger than everyone else save the guildmaster, Gabi. For what reason did he dwell within Kestrel, then? Whenever he thought about leaving the guild, he always seemed to lose his nerve at the last instant. It was always that way; the madness always took him whenever he thought on it too long; inevitably outweighing his reason until his next short-lived bout of sanity. Was the voice in his head his head real? Or was it just his own paranoia-

"Daydreaming again?"

Naruto blinked, drawn from his reverie by the voice of a sultry siren.

Sapphire eyes swept across the flagstone steps leading to the arena counter, narrowing ever-so-slightly in recognition as they beheld the speaker. She must've just returned from the arena, mere moments after Hinata left Lumina Cloth. The irony was not lost on Naruto. Had this one seen him talking to a member of Moon Tree, she'd likely have PK'ed her on the spot.

_"Bordeaux."_

Bordeaux, a scantily clad blade brandier and possibly one of the few players in the" World" he actually dared call friend, regarded him with a sly smile. Without asking his permission, she chose a spot beside him on the steps, uncaring for the slight shiver her prescence set off in him. Her crimson eyes regarded him keenly, as though she could somehow cut through the fog clouding his thoughts through sheer willpower alone. When he said nothingExpecting

"Looks like something's on your mind, eh, Naruto?"

The blond bit back a smile.

"Nothing, really."

"Is that so?" the blade brandier mused.

"You wanna go PK'ing? she offered.

"Nah."

"C'mon, it'll be fun." Bordeaux urged. "Takes your mind off things."

"Such as?"

Bordeaux abruptly grew flustered.

"S-Stuff."

This time, Naruto did laugh.

"That stuff wouldn't happen to be me by any chance now, would it-_oof!"_ He grunted in surprise as the blade brandier thrust an elbow into his face; her blow jarring the only unarmored space open on his entire body. A flash of pain exploded before his eyes, forcing him to ride the wave until it abated.

"Jerk!" She exclaimed, flushing. "Why'd you have to go and ruin the moment?!"

"It's a talent." Naruto laughed.

There was just something about redheads that attracted him so. It wasn't so much that he found them fascinating; he merely enjoyed their company, the emotion a holdover from some distant time. Bordeaux was an attractive character indeed, yet at times, her personality disgusted him in spite of their friendship. While she enjoyed seeking strong opponents such as he, _she _was not beyond using whatever means necessary, when it came to winning.

Bordeaux shook her head, her tan features still flush with embarassment.

"I'm gonna go for another round." she declared, rising from her seat beside him, regarding the arena counter with intent. "Sure you don't wanna join me?"

"I'm sure."

"Later." With a small smile and a flash of light her character vanished from the world, until next to be seen. Naruto watched the light streak into the digital distance, shrinking to a pinpoint of brilliance and then, nothing at all.

"The brightest lights burn half as long." Naruto mused to himself, regarding the starry skies of Lumina Cloth with an emotion that might've been akin to trepidation. The Twilight Brigade was merely one example of such a light. With the loss of their leader, they simply ceased to function, both as a cohesive group and as a guild. Idly, he wondered if he was the only one who felt anything in this world. True, the players themselves would experience them; joy, when the leveled up or received a rare item; anger when they failed to defeat a monster. In a sense, perhaps he _was_ the World.

It was as much his home as anywhere; to think otherwise, was absurd. And still, he wondered; did anyone here actually feel? He knew the players were connected to their characters, through these 'controllers' of theirs just as they saw the world-his world-through their M2D goggles, but, for the life of him, he still couldn't bring himself to understand how they viewed this world. To them, it was just a game. To Naruto, it was more. So much more. Did they feel the cool hilt of a weapon warm beneath their fingertips? Did they experience pain when they were struck down?

The Crimson Spiral had never once tasted defeat in the world. Not a once had he fallen, and yet, he suspected if-when-he eventually did, he would not rise again. He touched a hand to his nose, still throbbing from the unexpected blow by Bordeaux. For a moment-just a moment-his surroundings seemed to blur. With a supreme effort of will, he forced himself into focus once more.

"Which means...

...mine is bound to go out."

**A/N: Poor Naruto! How did he become stuck in the game? And what on earth happened to his body?! As there are the epitaphs, so too are there the Biju. Think of it as a counterbalance. This ought to be interesting, considering Naruto's personality and his unique 'relationship' with Bordeaux and Kurama. I found it strangely amusing to place the Naruto characters themselves within the area of the game itself, for which I hope you enjoyed. I worked really hard on this one! I will also say the pairing is not quite what it seems! More to come soon!**

**So, in the immortal words of Atlas...**

**...would you kindly review?**

**R&R! =D**


End file.
